Sunday, October 4, 2009

weekend class

IF THE ONLY TOOL YOU HAVE IS A HAMMER, EVERY PROBLEM LOOKS LIKE A NAIL ---- Abraham Maslow

This weekend, I took a course to learn more about the big star of the 2008 Summer Olympics. No, it was not a class about Michael Phelps. Nor was it about Misty May's derriere. It was not about the aging athlete (Dara Torres) and it was not about the engineering marvel of the bird's nest. No, this class was about the REALLY big star of the games: kinesiotape.

I first started hearing about kinesiotape in 1999, years before world class athletes jumped, ran, swam,and volleyed their way across Beijing in multi-colored straps of fiber. At times, the Olympic events looked less like athletic competitions than a technicolor bondage party! I wanted to know: did this stuff really work, or was it just a lot of hype?

So I was really glad when my work sponsored a kinesiotaping course this weekend. Finally, I could get the scoop.

On the first day of class, I was interested, but skeptical. And I was really annoyed at the eighties-inspired hot pink and electric blue color scheme. What was wrong with the nice beige color we had in the clinic? It can't be seen from a distance and offers kinesiotape victims --ahem, patients -- a bit of pride. I want to help my patients, not humiliate them!

But after hours of strapping and taping and wrapping ankles and shoulders and legs and thumbs, after getting first hand experience of how securely the tape supported while allowing movement, after seeing how well the tape actually worked, I became a convert. On day two, I was like a health care Picasso, creating masterpieces of pink, blue, black and beige on skin canvases. I was mentally going through my caseload, figuring out how I could use kinesiotape with each and every one of my patients. Unstable shoulder? Kinesiotape. Plantar fasciitis? Kinesiotape. Osteoarthritis of the knee? We can kinesiotape that. Head injury? Break out the kinesiotape!

I left the class covered from head to toe in tape. I started planning a mummy costume for Halloween. Trick or treaters? I'll give them rolls of kinesiotape. For Christmas, I'll string kinesiotape along the branches of my Christmas tree. And on Thanksgiving, you KNOW what I'll be giving thanks for.

I looked around my apartment. I have a picture that needs to be hung. I could use kinesiotape. A pair of sneakers with a hole in them. A throw rug that always slides across the room. My Ikea computer chair that no longer sits securely on its base. There's NOTHING this stuff can't fix. It's like -- duct tape for people -- and more!

My only concern is...I don't want to become one of THOSE people. You know, people who become obsessed with something and just don't let it go? Like Trekkies. Or Jimmy Buffet fans. Or that family on TLC with 8000 kids. Is it possible that I could become so enamored with a roll of tape that I bring it out and use it in the most inappropriate situations?

Nah. That won't happen. There is no inappropriate situation for kinesiotape. It's that good.

TODAY'S AWESOME: Went grocery shopping and organized all my meals for the week in nice little single serving containers neatly lined up in the fridge. Now I can just grab and go each morning. awesome.